Grand Game 424: A Meeting of Wolves (Patreon)

Day Thirty-Two in Draven’s Reach

Panting from my long run, I drew to a halt in front of Ceruvax. Unmoving, the envoy studied me while I caught my breath.

You have passed a mental resistance check! Ceruvax has failed to analyze you.

The old wolf rubbed his chin. “Deception?”  he guessed.

I nodded.

“Hmm. I have you to thank for my escape from Scharlach, I take it?”

I stared at him blankly. “From where?”

“The dungeon in Nexus where the Shadow Coalition had me trapped.”

“Oh.” Breathing easier at last, I dropped my hands and stood straighter. “Yes, I brought you here.”

The envoy’s eyes roved over me from head to foot, darting from ebonheart to the legendary wayfarer items, before finally coming to rest on the wolf insignia emblazoned on my cloak. “You’ve grown since we last met.”

I smiled. “I have.”

Ceruvax’s head jerked upward to study the purple sky. “Where are we?”

My eyebrows rose. “You don’t know?”

He shrugged. “I know we’re in a dungeon, but not which one.”

Frowning, my gaze darted to Draven.

Seeing where I looked, the envoy smiled. “The guardian brought me here and bade me wait. For what he would not say. Then, he fell asleep.”

My frown deepened. “He didn’t explain?” Technically, Draven hadn’t needed to do so. Bringing Ceruvax here was all the centaur was required to do to honor the terms of the boon. But still, I’d expected better of him…

“He didn’t,” Ceruvax replied mildly.

“And you still waited?”

Surprisingly, the old wolf laughed. “Boy, I can’t believe you’ve grown so much that you think it wise to disobey one such as Draven. When a guardian says wait, you wait.”

“I see.”

“Besides,” Ceruvax added, glancing to the left, “I kept busy.”

Following his gaze, I realized with a start the harbinger’s corpse was gone. In its place was a mess of gory remains.

“Did you kill it?” he asked softly.

I nodded.

Wordlessly, the envoy held out his hand. Resting on his palm was a single glittering stone as black as the void. Reaching out with my will, I analyzed the item.

This is a netherstone. It is an artifact of unknown rank. You are unable to discern its properties.

“What’s a netherstone?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” he asked, echoing my earlier question.

I shook my head.

“Curious.” Ceruvax’s gaze flickered to the aetherstone bracelet on my wrist. “I assumed it was because of the netherstone that you came to this dungeon.” He stared at me from beneath bushy brows. “That’s the only reason for hunting a harbinger that does not smack of stupidity.”

“It’s a long story,” I said, waving aside his comment. “Are you going to tell me what the stone does?”

Ceruvax held up the glistening orb between his thumb and forefinger. “This little gem can do what no aetherstone can—it can record nether coordinates.”

I blinked. “Does that mean you can use it to teleport into a dungeon?”

The envoy chuckled. “I wish, but no. But the stone can record the coordinates of a sector lost in the Nethersphere. With it, you can jump directly into the void without using a rift.” Frowning, he stared upward at the shimmering barrier surrounding the dungeon. “It’s why the stygians never leave harbinger bodies lying around. They don’t want scions—or players—jumping freely into their territory. How did you manage to hide that corpse from them?”

“All part of that long story I mentioned,” I said blandly.

Shaking his head, Ceruvax tossed the stone at me, and I caught it.

You have acquired a netherstone.

“Thanks,” I said, storing the small object in one of my pockets.

“I have a thousand and one questions, boy,” Ceruvax said. “But they can wait for later. You’ve been running hard. I don’t want to know from what, but I assume it’s unsafe to remain. We should—”

“On the contrary, there are few safer places in the dungeon.”  I pointed northwest. “The safe zone is not far in that direction.” I sank to the ground in a cross-legged stance. “But I’ll admit, I’d rather not walk all that way right now. We can talk here.”

Ceruvax eyed me askance but didn’t demur. “This entire canyon stinks of stygians.” He sat beside me, resting his staff horizontally across his knees. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say the nether invaded.”

“It did,” I said seriously.

The old wolf didn’t come out and say it, but from his pointed looks in Draven’s direction, I knew he thought I exaggerated. How could the nether invade a sector protected by a guardian, after all?

“The guardian was in stasis,” I replied. Removing a pair of rations from my backpack, I offered one to the envoy.

Wrinkling his nose, Ceruvax refused. “The new Powers put him to sleep?” he growled. “How?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t the new Powers. Going into stasis was something Draven and his brethren decided to do on their own.” I bit into my ration. “When I arrived, there was a hole in the barrier, and stygian seeds were taking root everywhere. There was even a void tree.” I swallowed. “It was only a sapling, though.”

The envoy kept his face impassive, but he couldn’t stop his hands from tightening around his staff. “A void tree. A harbinger. Stygian seeds. And a nest.”

He didn’t ask, but I could see the question in his eyes. “I didn’t defeat them all on my own,” I said with a smile. “I had help. And Draven did the rest once we woke him.”

Ceruvax bowed his head, pondering my words.

“That’s how you did it then,” he said after a moment.

“Did what?”

The old wolf looked at me. “Convinced the guardian to pull me out of Scharlach. You earned his favor by clearing the dungeon, didn’t you? Then you used your boon to rescue me.”

“Something like that,” I mumbled, swallowing another mouthful.

Ceruvax shook his head. Whether it was at my audacity or my folly at wasting the boon, I couldn’t tell. Looking around, he scanned the valley. “I take it then that the stygian menace has been fully dealt with?”

I shrugged. “In this sector.”

“What does that mean?” he asked sharply.

I set down my ration. “Two sectors lead into Draven’s Reach. The first has already fallen into the nether. The second is already in peril. That one has a void tree, too.” I shuddered. “An older one.”

Ceruvax’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “How do we leave here then?”

“There is a third portal.”

“And what lies on the other side of it?”

“I don’t know,” I said tiredly. “Like the entrances, the exit is one-way. According to my allies, it leads to the Kingdom. However, any information we have on the sector is centuries out of date. I can confirm that the void isn’t present there, though.” Adriel had managed to extract this much from Draven. Unfortunately, because Kingdom sectors were outside the guardian network, he couldn’t tell us much else about what awaited us on the portal’s other side.

Ceruvax rubbed his chin. “Setting aside this curious case of your allies, how did you manage to enter this dungeon—what did you call it? Draven’s Reach—if the void is present in both entrance sectors?”

“My Class helped me navigate the way safely through.” I shot him a look. “I find it curious, by the way, that you haven’t inquired about my Classes, considering your… preoccupation with them the last time we met.”

Ceruvax grinned toothily, his first genuine smile since we’d met, I suspected. “I may not be able to analyze you, my young scion, but I can read your Mark as well as any wolf.” Remaining seated, he bowed low over his hand. “Hail, Protector. May the Packs flourish under your rule.”

Ceruvax has acknowledged your Wolf Mark, accepting your supremacy within House Wolf without contest.

I stared at the old wolf, not sure what surprised me more: the Game message or his words.

Unbending, Ceruvax met my quizzical look. “Your Wolf Mark tells me all I need to know,” he said softly. “And not only have you proven yourself to a Pack and earned their loyalty, but you’ve also begun to tread the ways of Power.” His eyes shone. “You’ve gained an ascendant Class.”

I was taken aback. “How do you know that?”

He tilted his head to the side. “I fear whichever Wolf has seen to your education has done a bad job.”

I dismissed his words. “There are no Wolves except for me.” I paused. “And now you, I suppose.”

He leaned forward intently. “Truly? Then who are these allies you mentioned?”

“They’re decidedly not Wolves,” I replied, deliberately keeping my response vague. Now was not the time to bring up the lichs’ peculiar affiliations.

“I see,” he said, sitting back. “That explains the… gaps in your understanding.”

I rolled my eyes. “No need to be coy about it. I know I’m still ignorant of much of the Game. Now tell me. What did you mean?”

“I like you, young wolf,” Ceruvax said with a laugh. “I do. Now, listen carefully. There are two paths to ascendancy for adherents of Wolf. The first is straightforward and requires you to advance your player level to rank thirty.”

I nodded slowly. “I’ve often heard minor Powers described as players above level three hundred.”

Ceruvax’s lips turned down. “We amongst the Houses prefer the term, Young Blood.”

“Hmm. Is that the only difference between the two? A name?”

The envoy waved aside my words. “There is more to it than that, which I will tell you all about—” his eyes twinkled—“and at great length. But to get back to your question. There is also a second path to ascendancy, and it is that which I believe you’ve set yourself on.”

“Let me guess… it depends on my Marks?”

He smiled. “Exactly. For a Wolf to acquire an ascendant Class requires two things: the Mark of a Wolf Protector and a Powerful Initiate Mark. I can see your Protector Mark.” He pointed to the spot recently occupied by the harbinger’s corpse. “And you already told me you killed that. So…”

“So, you know I have the Initiate Mark too,” I finished for him, “and putting the two together, you concluded I’ve obtained an ascendant Class.”

Ceruvax nodded. “What Class did you choose?”

“Wolf Lord,” I replied absently, still pondering what he’d said.

“An interesting choice,” he mused. “And your level?”

“I’m level two hundred and five.”

The old wolf’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“I’m not lying,” I said, interpreting his look.

“But… the danger,” he began, struggling for the right words. “You shouldn’t have… The risks…”

“I know,” I replied gravely. “Ascending this early was not deliberate on my part.” My gaze slid to the harbinger’s remains. “It was an accident—mostly.”

Ceruvax laughed hollowly. “An accident?”

“I understand the risks, believe me,” I said quietly. “Both those to me personally and my aspirations for House Wolf.” I inhaled deeply. “Those risks are why I brought you here.”

Any joy the envoy’s gaze had held had long since fled, and now he studied me as seriously as I did him. “I think you better start at the beginning, boy.”

I sighed. “Make yourself comfortable, then. This is going to take a while.”